1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to carrying cases for portable computers and, more particularly, to carrying cases for portable computers wherein the computers are protected against damage from impacts.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Portable computers such as laptop or notebook computers have become increasingly popular due to their transportability, allowing such computers to be used in various places during and/or following transport. To enhance transportability, portable computers are typically designed to minimize size and weight and, therefore, do not usually include excess room for accommodating shock or impact absorbing materials or structure to protect sensitive components of the computers against damage from impacts. As a result, portable computers are vulnerable to damage if dropped, bumped against other objects or otherwise jarred or impacted, as often occurs during transport.
Carrying cases have been proposed for portable computers incorporating foam padding or other structure to protect the computers against damage from impacts. Exemplary carrying cases for portable computers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,988 to Brown, U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,001 to Marceau, U.S. Pat. No. 5,217,119 to Hollingsworth, U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,157 to Golenz et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,754 to Hollingsworth, U.S. Pat. No. 5,622,262 to Sadow, U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,035 to Kim, U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,223 to Cunningham, U.S. Pat. No. 5,755,329 to Sadow, U.S. Pat. No. 5,762,170 to Shyr et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,497 to Krulik, U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,942 to Sadow, U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,806 to Fischel et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,270 to Shyr, and European Patent No. 0 797 939 A2.
Some carrying cases for portable computers include protective slings therein forming computer receiving compartments for receiving a portable computer. Such slings are typically formed by opposed walls that are spaced from one another at their top ends and connected to one another at their bottom ends to form a closed base upon which a portable computer is supported. One of the walls is typically pivotable about its bottom end toward the opposed wall to allow the computer to be closely held between the opposed walls. Since the pivotable wall cannot move in its entirety relative to the opposed wall, the computer receiving compartment may be much smaller in width at its bottom than at its top. Accordingly, a computer received in the computer receiving compartment may be too tightly held at the bottom of the compartment and too loosely held at the top of the compartment, thereby possibly damaging the computer or rendering it susceptible to damage from impacts.
In many carrying cases, the structure defining the computer receiving compartment is disposed within a larger storage compartment with the base or bottom of the computer receiving compartment spaced from a bottom wall of the storage compartment. When the storage compartment is used to store objects or items, such as computer accessories, documents, personal effects, etc., such items may enter the vacant space beneath the computer receiving compartment and may thusly be difficult to subsequently locate, access and retrieve.
Conventional carrying cases for portable computers are typically provided with handles for being manually grasped in order to pick up and carry the carrying cases as illustrated by the patents cited above. Various other handles have been proposed for use on carrying cases, luggage, bags, boxes and the like as represented by U.S. Pat. No. Des. 188,582 to Koffler, U.S. Pat. No. 1,374,126 to Walter, U.S. Pat. No. 2,800,940 to Riesebeck, U.S. Pat. No. 2,908,362 to Burtchaell, U.S. Pat. No. 2,913,080 to Louik et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,023,868 to Koffler, U.S. Pat. No. 3,115,229 to Erhard, U.S. Pat. No. 3,500,973 to Bush, U.S. Pat. No. 3,529,317 to Schwarzkoph, U.S. Pat. No. 3,531,822 to Bush, U.S. Pat. No. 3,656,594 to Marks et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,692,155 to Laurita, U.S. Pat. No. 3,813,729 to Szabo et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,140 to Franges, U.S. Pat. No. 3,944,033 to Simson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,078 to Edwards et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,347,990 to Seynhaeve, U.S. Pat. No. 4,364,150 to Remington, U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,876 to Houlberg, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,883 to Irani et al.
Many handles used on carrying cases for portable computers are formed of pivotable handle portions that do not tend to stay in an upstanding position when the carrying case is set down in an upright position on a support surface. Rather, the handle portions tend to pivot downwardly toward the carrying case of their own accord. Accordingly, each time such a handle is to be grasped, the handle portions thereof must first be manually pivoted to the upstanding position. This can prove to be very annoying and time consuming for the user, particularly where the carrying case must be set down and picked up numerous times. A further disadvantage of such handles is that the handle portions, when pivotally moved to the upstanding position, and manually grasped together with a single hand, present conspicuous seams, separations or hard edges that are felt by the hand and result in discomfort. Also, conventional handles for carrying cases for portable computers do not effectively distribute weight over the underside of the hand and/or tend to exert undesired pressure on the outer sides of the index and pinkie fingers.